Peshawar, Feb 19 (NVI) Pakistan has lost at least 2 soldiers as its forces enaged in cross-border firing and shelling with Afghan border troops at a few places in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The fatalities among the Pakistani forces have occurred at a border post in Baizai in Mohmand district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa last night, according to reports.
The border forces of the two neighbouring countries have been engaged in cross-border firing and shelling for last three days in of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Baizai area, which is located opposite Kunar Province of Afghanistan.
The heavy shelling and firing has resulted in dislocation of thousands of people living in the border areas of Afghanistan.
For over a year, the forces of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and Pakistan have been engaging in border clashes intermittently, leading to heightened tensions.
Pakistan has been alleging that the Taliban fighters often cross over from Afghanistan to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to help Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in carrying out terrorism.
According to Pakistan, the Taliban fighters of Afghanistan even cut the border fence to cross over.
The Taliban regime as well as TTP have been denying the allegations.
At the same time, both the Afghan Taliban and TTP maintain that they do not recognise the border, called ‘Durand Line’, calling it imaginary and artificial since it was drawn by the Britishers to divide the people of the same clan and ethnicity — Pashtuns. (NVI)
